SABER

Vanya Demir entered the formal parlor, a glass of spiked eggnog clutched in her fist, and sauntered toward the raised hearth to sit in front of the fire, where she could stare into the flames and sulk.

Ciopori was still taking a shower, while the Silivasi males convened on the porch with Saber Alexiares, Vanya’s mate. The vampires had wanted to speak with the sentinel about a matter involving the king and Kevin Parker; meanwhile, Lisa Fisher, one of the previous human dinner guests, had returned to the farmhouse in a dither. Apparently, she had forgotten her purse.

No problem.

Vanya had graciously offered to fetch the handbag, and she’d inadvertently left the front door open. Big mistake. In the space of three minutes, the human female had forgotten the angst over her handbag and managed to flirt with Saber, like she’d completely lost her mind.

With her superior vampiric hearing, Vanya couldn’t help but overhear the entire coquettish conversation: “Oh, Saber, is that your real hair? Wow, Mr. Alexiares, I can’t believe you’re a sentinel now. Oh my gosh, you have to hear this joke”—blah, blah, blah—“by the way, you’ve got some serious guns—do vampires actually work out?”

What the hell kind of question was that?

Do vampires actually work out?

Do ski bunnies fly?

Perhaps they’d find out!

Besides, was Saber the only drop-dead gorgeous male on that porch?

Vanya didn’t think so.

Just what the heck was it about black-and-red demonic hair, anyway, that made human women want to play fast and loose with a fire-breathing dragon? Couldn’t they sense all that savage, dormant energy just swirling beneath the surface? While Saber may have been redeemed, after living for eight hundred years in the Dark Ones’ Colony, he was still one of the most volatile souls in the house of Jadon.

“Oh, Saber…oh, Saber…ohhhhh, Saber,” Vanya murmured beneath her breath…

She had marched onto that porch, glared icicles through the wanton woman, and tossed Lisa’s purse into the yard—at least twenty feet away—into a tall bank of snow!

And that’s when Saber had intervened.

“Whoa there, Princess,” the dragon had drawled in that erotic, masculine, fire-and-ice voice. “Lisa was just being friendly, just killing time. Let’s go back inside.”

Oh, so Saber and Lisa were on a first-name basis now? “Ah, yes. Of course, she was,” Vanya had quipped in a lyrical tone of her own. “And it’s all very funny until someone loses an eye!” Her voice had turned as frigid as the frozen snow.

Saber had placed his hand on her elbow, spun her around, and walked her back into the foyer. “Not gonna do this tonight, baby girl. I’m on duty, and I need to speak with the Silivasis—be home later.” He’d paused to eye her from head to toe, taking appreciative note of her form-fitting red dress. “You look hot as hell, by the way,” he’d growled. And then he’d brushed his thumb over her lower lip, flashed a hint of his devilish fangs, and sauntered back out the door with that cocky, sexy swagger.

As if Vanya could be that easily manipulated…

Or dismissed.

In her peripheral vision, she’d watched Kagen Silivasi retrieve Lisa’s purse, brush off the snow, and return it to the human. And that’s when she’d slammed the door behind Saber and headed for the eggnog.

“If you squeeze that glass any harder, it’s going to break in your hand,” Deanna said from her perch on the edge of a two-person settee, situated cattycorner to the fireplace.

Vanya blinked three times and surveyed the room.

All the destinies were eyeing her warily: Jocelyn from the opposite, matching settee; Kristina from a high-backed wing chair on the other side of a large bay window; and Arielle from the edge of the sofa, which faced the exquisite slate-stone fireplace. Apparently, Ciopori was still showering—or changing clothes. “Oh,” Vanya murmured absently, relaxing her grip on the crystal glass. “There is only one thing I would like to know.”

“What’s that?” Arielle asked.

“Do all human women have a death wish?”

Jocelyn Levi-Silivasi blanched. “Uh, that would be a no, Vanya. What’s up?”

Vanya flicked her wrist, almost spilling the eggnog. “Saber appears to be a chicken-magnet, and I just don’t understand it.”

Deanna snickered, her exotic eyes lighting up with mirth. “I think that’s chick-magnet, and it can’t be helped.”

Kristina Riley-Silivasi shuddered. “It’s these males. All that savage, animal magnetism. They make human women lose their damn minds.”

Deanna nodded with appreciation. “A few weeks back, Nachari went with me to the mall—I was looking for a new pair of Ugg boots, and I swear to you, one would have thought my name was Medusa because every woman we passed turned into a statue, frozen in place with her mouth gaping open. It was truly bizarre.”

Jocelyn laughed. “Nathaniel is like the Pied Piper. Women just line up behind him and follow. He swears he doesn’t even notice, but I think he does it on purpose just to keep me on my toes.”

Kristina narrowed her gaze on Vanya, furrowed her brows, and pressed a finger to her puckered lips. “You wouldn’t happen to be referring to that tall, skinny blonde, the one that teaches snowboarding? The chickadee with the big green eyes—was she the one looking at Saber?”

Vanya glanced at the fire-poker a moment longer than she should, wondering about all its creative uses. “Yes,” she said tersely. “Lisa…Lisa Fisher.”

“Oh,” Jocelyn chimed in, “I don’t think you need to worry about her. She’s actually a nice lady, very kind and intelligent. She just gets really, really nervous around the warriors, and she starts to babble. She resorts to flirting because—well, I guess that’s why she’s so good at her job. A lot of male tourists visit the ski resort for the fantasy of meeting a ‘ski bunny.’” She made a pair of mock quotations with her fingers.

Kristina waved a dismissive hand. “That might be true, but I think she’s also a little bit curious.” She leaned forward in her chair and smirked. “Earlier, before dinner, I passed her in the hall, and she actually had the cojones to stop me. She was like, ‘Hey, can I ask you something? You’re still single, right? Have you ever dated one of the males? I mean, do they even do that…date? Do they—well, you know—do any of the single males sow their wild oats before they finally find their destinies?’”

Vanya felt like her blood was about to boil.

So much for loyal human servants.

She made a V with her second and third fingers, crossed her thumb over the remaining two, and toggled them up and down, moving them forward as if in a puppet show. “Little bunny foo-foo hopping through the forest…” she began to sing in a mocking voice.

“V!” Kristina snapped, cutting the childhood ditty off in mid-verse. “You need to chill with the psycho-stalker thing—seriously.” She sat back in the light-beige wingback chair and sighed. “I don’t know what it is about Saber, how he’s managed to turn one of the most regal, sophisticated women in all of Dark Moon Vale into a lunatic, but that thing you’re doing right now…with your fingers…it’s borderline cray-cray. Seriously. You need to chill.” She brushed some imaginary lint off her shoulder as if to dismiss the nonsense. “Besides, I think I might have curbed Lisa’s appetite, or at least her curiosity, when I answered her question.”

For whatever reason, this piqued Arielle’s curiosity, and she leaned forward on the sofa. “What did you tell her?”

Kristina arched her back and flicked her wrist. “I was like, I don’t know—sort of, maybe—I doubt it. I told her, ‘Look, I used to be married to Marquis, and then I sort of dated Saber in a roundabout way, when I thought I was dating Ramsey…who’s actually married to Tiffany. But I’ve always been secretly in love with Nachari, only he’s kind of my brother, so that doesn’t work. And besides, I’m more or less engaged to Braden now, so I don’t really know how to answer that question.’” Kristina scrunched up her nose and threw both hands in the air. “She looked at me like I was crazy! ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘you guys…I mean, your kind is kind of hyper-sexual, aren’t you?’ Puh-lease! I mean, I’m the only woman in this room who hasn’t had sex with anybody!”

Arielle and Jocelyn both chuckled, and Vanya just shook her head.

Deanna rocked forward in her seat. “You’re in love with Nachari?”

Kristina laughed. “Here, kitty-kitty,” she teased.

Deanna snarled.

“Just kidding, D. Not actually in love…just in lust with those sexy eyes and that sinfully gorgeous face, just grateful for every opportunity I have to look at him.” She swept her gaze around the room, addressing the entire group. “C’mon, am I the only who thinks like that?”

There was another chorus of giggles.

And that’s when Alejándra Ramirez rushed into the parlor, her eyes wide, her face flushed, her breath ragged with exasperation. “Miss Jocelyn! Come quick—Storm is out of control!”